Mute
by Yosuke
Summary: Kyou is the cat spirit. For it, Kyou is shunned, even as an innocent child who never did anything to anybody. As he struggles with this pain, can Kazuma help him find his home? Rated for bullying, violence.


Mute

Yosuke

PG-13

Drama/Angst

AN: I've written a Yuki-angst story. Now I need to do a Kyou-angst one. I've been trying to think of a good one and I finally came up with something after re-watching the last few episodes. So, this story will be similar to the other one, "That corner has toys". Same style, same age, same angsty-goodness. Enjoy.

Furuba not mine.

Kyou had gone mute.

This made for a very silent dinnertime as the boy, no older than seven, and his guardian, Kazuma, sat at the table, eating with only the sounds of the utensils clanging against the bowls and plates being heard. Kyou didn't say anything. He only stared at his food as he ate, though Kazuma suspected the boy's attention was drawn more to space rather than his dinner. He sighed and attempted to break the silence.

"You're going back to school in a little bit, right? How do you think that will be?" he asked politely, but the cat gave no response. Kazuma sighed again, not sure whether to continue his efforts or let it be. Kyou had just come to live with him only a few days ago. He wanted to consider it normal that the boy might've felt withdrawn, but the man had been making every attempt to be as open and loving to him as he could so that Kyou might not feel so… alone. Though, he couldn't blame him even if he did. So much had been happening, starting with the suicide. Kyou had never had a good relationship with his father, but ever since his mother had killed herself, they seemed more distant than ever. And just recently, whenever they saw each other, the father snarled towards his son and turned away quickly. The bitterness was so thick in the air, Kazuma could almost see Kyou choke on it. It hurt to watch, but he had no choice, and quickly led Kyou away before anything else could happen.

After the funeral, besides Kyou's father's spiteful attacks, people seemed less and less aware of Kyou's feelings. If there was ever anybody out in the walkways while the cat passed by, they quickly walked away, fearing the "curse" that roamed freely when everybody silently prayed it would soon be locked up forever like it supposedly deserved to be.

Kazuma pressured a piece of fish he had burnt on accident with his chopsticks until it split in half, then lifted it up and ate it. He remembered how he had offered the boy a spot in his martial arts class and wondered if perhaps that might've been a mistake. With all the teasing from the young kids on the "inside", he feared Kyou, with _his_ temper, might get a little punch-happy and start up even bigger problems.

He looked up at Kyou. The orange head was bowed as the chopsticks in his little hand prodded around in the small bowl of rice in front of him, rolling together a large enough cluster of grains to eat. It seemed the silence bearing down on them was getting heavier.

"When do you think you'd like to start learning martial arts, Kyou?" Kazuma asked the moment the question came to mind. Slowly, the cat's head lifted to look blankly at his guardian. The man smiled in hopes of sparking the same reaction in the child. It was silent for a long moment before Kyou carefully stood and put his chopsticks down, then turned and walked out the door to go outside.

Kazuma watched his figure leave to enter the graying atmosphere of the outside, then looked back at his pitiful excuse of cooked dishes splayed out on the table. In the back of his mind, he wondered if perhaps Kyou had been feeling ill, withdrawn, or simply hated the food. His shoulders sagged as he put his chopsticks onto his plate, suddenly feeling his appetite disappear as well.

The sky was darkening slowly, threatening the city with rain. Kyou winced at the thought and quickly moved to stand beneath the awnings of a line of houses. He stared up at the clouds and wondered if his guardian was mad at him for just leaving without a proper request. The wind started to pick up a little. Kyou noticed and started pulling the sides of his jacket closer around himself, then idly began zipping it up.

"Hey, you!"

The boy darted around to see a middle-aged woman rushing out of her home with a broom in her hand. "Get away from here, you dirty freak! I don't want my home soiled by the cat! I have children that live here! Get away before you scare them!" She started swinging the broom in his direction. Kyou normally would've liked to say something rude back to the woman, but found himself momentarily out of words to say and quickly ran from the house, rushing down the street just in time for the rain to start pouring. Kyou shivered when the rain started hitting his legs and vaguely cursed himself for only wearing shorts and not pants.

He made it to the pond within the Souma property and ran to get under the tree beside the water. Now shielded from the cold rain, he wiped his face dry with a sleeve and lowered himself to the roots, staring distantly at the water as it rippled with the rain drops, forming several vanishing little circles all across the surface. Some ways away, three children were near the edge of the pond, sword fighting with small wooden katana their parents had no doubt given them. One of them wore a headband with a rising sun on it and all three were jumping up and down in puddles that surrounded them while caught in swordplay. Kyou's red eyes stared at them for a long moment, recognizing two of them from the streets and childishly thought of asking to join but knew he would be declined and even chased after with their fake swords. He looked away from the group and hugged his legs, setting his chin on his knees and staring once again at the pond.

'I'm an embarrassment…' he thought solemnly, mind wandering back to his guardian. He hated Kazuma being seen with Kyou, knowing that everyone was now not only scowling at the cat, but at the foolish man who decided to adopt him. He didn't deserve that treatment, Kyou had thought. Kazuma didn't deserve to be looked down on like Kyou was. He then decided, to save face for his teacher, he would show up to the house much later that night when everyone would be asleep and no one would see the freak walk right into the respected martial arts teacher's home. Kyou could remember the disgusted faces of the people he walked by when on their way home on some days. Just like yesterday… Kazuma had gone to fetch Kyou after the boy had gotten himself into a little trouble that day. At that part of the evening, the walkways were somewhat crowded; a holiday was nearing and everyone was rushing about for preparations. Kazuma led Kyou through the thickening crowd, nearing their home slowly. Often, the boy was forced to grab hold of the man's robe, in fear or losing him in the street. Sometimes, Kazuma turned his head to see Kyou and smiled at the pure innocence and childishness that Kyou expressed when simply holding onto him for safety. Once Kyou noticed his guardian's look, he blushed and let go, hiding his face and keeping near him.

During their walk, people of course started saying things, vague rumors and nasty insults at the sight of the cat walking with such a respected man. Kazuma could only hope Kyou hadn't heard the whisperings, but also knew that he could and grimaced inwardly.

When the boy heard all the things people kept saying, he lowered his head.

_"I can't believe someone would actually take him in!"_

_"I know, neither can I! I mean, what was Kazuma thinking, taking such a filthy animal, and a **beast** at that, into his own home? Doesn't he realize how dangerous that is?"_

_"Poor Kazuma. I heard he was rather distant from some of his family, so perhaps he's deluded by the sight of shunned little boy. I'm sure he's realized by this time what kind of mistake he's made."_

_"I wonder how long it will take before he kicks that rotten cat out?"_

_"I'm not sure, but he better do it soon. His reputation might start to wither away. I mean, who would think highly of a man so foolish as to take care of a little horror like that?"_

Once Kyou heard these things, he bit his lip and started walking a little slower, gradually falling more and more behind his guardian. After several moments, he was about half a block behind him and still slowing. 'I won't keep embarrassing him like this…' he thought sadly and hoped that people would think that the two were actually walking separately.

After several moments, Kazuma finally noticed the sudden absence of small footsteps behind him and stopped to look around. Kyou was far back behind him, in the center of the crowd as they all saw him and maneuvered quickly to avoid him. He had stopped as well when he had seen Kazuma stop. His hands were in his pockets, head lowered but eyes looking up to see him. He seemed very humiliated.

The small knot in his stomach that was the fear that he had lost Kyou in the crowd somewhere eased itself, and Kazuma fully turned to stare at him. Kyou made no movement except to lower his gaze to the ground. Faintly, the man smiled and approached the boy, stopping to kneel before him. He offered out his hand, smiling. Kyou looked up meekly at him, momentarily ignoring the hand and just watching him.

"I'm embarrassing you," Kyou finally said, the only thing he had said in a long time. Kazuma shook his head.

"And since when do other people decide if I'm embarrassed or not?"

Kyou gave a look that said, "But aren't you?"

Kazuma shook his head again. "I have no reason to be embarrassed, Kyou. There's nothing humiliating about escorting my student home."

The boy was silent again, mute as ever and staring in what looked like surprise at the man. Several moments passed, neither of them noticing the looks they were getting from the passersby. Finally, Kyou took the offered hand. Kazuma smiled again and stood, leading Kyou on by the hand back towards their home.

'Does he really only see me as his student? I'm not the cat-monster to him?' Kyou started to wonder. 'Everyone else hates me so much… Why not him?'

_"I see what you're going through everyday, Kyou, I really do, and I can only sympathize for you. Perhaps only I can see what your existence is like because I've seen it before. My grandfather carried the curse of the cat before you did, and I saw firsthand the cruel life he led. After seeing something like, I suppose I never wanted to see it again, and that is one of the reasons I decided to take you in and protect you from what I knew would come."_

'He really doesn't know any better, does he?' Kyou thought bitterly and rested his forehead on his knees. The rain started pounding harder and the boy felt the undeniable urge to fall asleep consume his mind. As his lids started to drop, his body swaying somewhat, threatening to fall onto the ground, he suddenly felt a sharp pain explode in his hand and yelped, looking up to find the cause.

"Hey, freak!"

The three kids had seen him and were gathering around, lining up and throwing rocks at him.

"Hey, you stupid cat! Get away from here! This is _our_ playground!"

Kyou winced but made no movement. There were just some things he would not comply with…

Sneering, the boys continued to throw whatever they could find on the ground by their feet, and when they ran out of those items, they neared the cat and started poking at him with their wooden swords. Kyou growled, feeling the urge to stand up and start swinging bottling up inside of him, but resisted and finally consented to just walking away, but the boys wouldn't allow it. As he tried to stand, one of them shoved him back to the roots. These kids were no older than him, so Kyou shouldn't have felt any particular threat in them, but couldn't help but wonder what these three planned to try.

"Ewww, don't touch him!" one complained. "You're hand's infected now! Daddy's gonna have to chop it off!"

"Nuh-uh! Not if it's like one of those monster movies! If you kill the source, then the infection disappears!"

"Kill the source! Kill the source!" another started shouting and began prodding harder at Kyou with his fake katana. Kyou hissed and stood up, darting away from them. As one neared, he threw a punch, but he missed and was hit in the arm with a sword. He stumbled back over a root and landed on his rump in a puddle, the safety of the tree's branches gone and the rain now pounding into his skin and clothes.

"Get him!" one yelled like a battle cry, and soon all three were jumping on him, beating with their swords, blind to how they were cutting and scratching and bruising him. Kyou grunted and yelled, swinging his fists around and kicking his legs, but they didn't cease. He felt a balled fist collide with his face and cried out. Blood started seeping from his nose.

This fierce bullying continued for a few more moments until one of them noticed the pretty bracelet on Kyou's left wrist and lifted his arm to grab it.

"No, don't!" the shortest of the three cried out. "If you take that off, I heard he turns into a big, ugly monster!"

Kyou's heart went heavy at the words.

"Really? I wanna see!" the boy shouted and yanked the black and white beads from the cat's arm. Quickly, all three jumped back to see the show.

At first nothing happened. Kyou only lied on his back on the ground, eyes as wide as they would go, staring at the sky. Rain poured onto him as his heart slowly started quickening its pace… then the smoke rose. His skin twisted, tightened, contorting into something it shouldn't have been. His pupils disappeared, his eyes narrowing to cat-like slits. He could feel every bone in his body twist painfully. It hurt so bad… His teeth grew in his mouth, his limbs lengthened, his spine contorted harshly. Finally, he let out a scream of pain and rolled onto his stomach.

The boys only stared in horror at the sudden transformation, watching the smoke clear and the new stench of rotting flesh rise into the air.

The monster cat remained on all fours, body just inches from the ground. After some time, it twisted its head around to stare evilly at the children. They screamed and ran.

_'Hurt them,'_ Kyou thought from deep inside that monster's body. And he did. Instinct took over, and Kyou launched himself at the fleeing children, tackling two of them to the ground and flexing his claws. _'Make them pay… You aren't supposed to be seen like this! WHO ARE THEY TO TURN YOU INTO THIS!'_ Kyou's mind was in a blind rage as his claws started tearing at their clothes, their arms, their faces. The one that had evaded the tackle stood in terror, watching, screaming at Kyou to stop but too afraid to get near and save his friends.

The two beneath him screamed in pain and fear, trying to shield their faces with their arms. Kyou only ripped harder, blood staining his claws, pieces of fabric lying around their bodies. He was about to bite into their arms, ready to tear them apart, when suddenly he felt something surround him. A pair of arms grabbed him, wrapping around him and pulling him away. He growled loudly, hissing and twisting his body around to try and escape the grasp this person had on him.

"Kyou, it's okay. It's okay," a voice said softly to him, and Kyou stopped. There was silence for a long time. "It's okay, it's okay…" the voice went on. It was Kazuma. Within his mind, Kyou sobbed and relaxed.

_'How can he stand to get close enough? How can he stand me?'_ the boy thought, lowering his head.

"Kyou, just stay calm. It's okay, I've got you," Kazuma continued to coo, gently trying to slip the bracelet back onto Kyou's arm but could only fit it past two claws. That was all it needed. The monster's form slowly contorted back into a child's, bones twisting, face transforming back into what it should've been. As his arm started to slim down, Kazuma finally managed to get the beads back on. Once the transformation was complete, Kyou's bleeding body collapsed back into Kazuma's arms, exhausted but still awake. Kazuma wanted to smile, but he couldn't. He couldn't after lifting his gaze to see the two children on the ground, bleeding to death, and the other kneeling by their sides to try and help them. A woman's shouting could be heard from the houses nearest them, and suddenly a group of adults came flooding out. Kazuma winced and hoped for the best which he knew wouldn't come.

The adults came to stop around the two children on the ground, mothers sobbing and men shouting to call an ambulance. The child who had been unharmed was taken into the arms of a woman, probably his mother.

"THAT BEAST!" one woman cried, apparently the mom of one of the children on the ground. "THAT THING DID THIS TO MY BABY!"

"Kazuma Souma, we've respected you as a man for a long time now, but if you continue to hold that monster in your home, near OUR CHILDREN, we will be forced to take extreme measures!"

"Like what?" Kazuma quickly dared, holding Kyou closer. The boy groaned, hearing the words but not caring to say anything about it. He knew it was coming. There was nothing he could do about it. 'Let them kill me, then…' Kyou thought absently. 'What good's a life if I can't live it?'

"Kazuma, we demand you hand that monster over now!" A man stepped forward, handing off his umbrella to his wife and moving to stand in front of the two. "We've tolerated that beast long enough! It's time to lock it up for good!"

"Just look what it did to my child!" a woman sobbed, motioning to her son. Kazuma sighed.

"Yes, I suppose I can't protect Kyou from your accusations. Indeed, he did harm your children and it was wrong of him, but it was also wrong of your boys to pick on him like they did. They took his beads off, mind you."

"Nuh-uh!" the only unharmed child screamed, and all attention was drawn to him. "He saw us all playing! He didn't want us to look so happy, so he came up to us and said 'I'm gonna kill you all!' and ripped off his beads himself!" To add to the drama, the boy turned to bury his face into his mother's dress and sobbed. The adults looked accusingly at the two.

"Then pray tell, how did Kyou get so beat up?"

The child turned his head to look back at them again, tears in his eyes. His expression went to total innocence. "We're sorry… We know we shouldn't have hurt him… But…" He sobbed. "We… We were just trying to defend ourselves! When he attacked us, all we could do was hit him back! We're sorry. We knew it was wrong…" The child continued to cry.

"Y'see that? That boy is a monster!"

"Lock him up!"

"Hand him over, Kazuma Souma!"

From the man's lap, Kyou began to growl, clenching his fists, tears starting to streak down his cheeks. "Th-That's not true…" he choked out. Kazuma looked down at him. "I-I didn't…"

"Shut him up!" A man yelled, rushing forward with a closed umbrella, lashing out the wooden handle towards him. Kyou shut his eyes tightly, ready for it, but instead felt the body holding him shift quickly… then nothing. He opened his eyes. Kazuma was on one knee, an arm raised, blocking the umbrella with his wrist. All things considered, he seemed rather calm.

"I will tolerate the badmouthing," Kazuma practically hissed. "I will tolerate the name-calling. I will tolerate the jokes, the cruelty. I will even tolerate the shunning." His arm twisted to grab the umbrella. "But if any of you… so much as _dares_ touching Kyou…" He yanked the umbrella forward, then backwards, sending the man to the ground. "…I will make sure it comes back to you ten-fold." Then he stood, lifting the bleeding body of Kyou up into his arms and proceeded in walking away.

"Kazuma!" someone called out. "Don't you dare take that boy back to some safety he doesn't deserve! He'll be punished for this!"

"Yeah! You heard what my son said! That monster hurt our poor kids!"

"That's not true!" a new voice shouted, over some ways. Everyone stopped to see the young child standing under the tree by the pond. His white hair was matted down from the rain, which only seemed to add to the look of annoyance on his face. "I saw the whole thing. Kyou didn't do anything."

"My son just confessed it, though!"

"Then he was lying," the boy stated blankly. "I saw. Kyou was just sitting by himself, then those three stupid kids came over and started picking on him. They took off his beads. Kyou was angry. You know you all would do the same if you were in that position."

Kazuma smiled softly. "Thank you, Hatsuharu."

Haru shrugged. "Normally, I just wouldn't care…"

The crowd was silent after that. There had been an eyewitness… the unharmed child couldn't much defend himself anymore. And it was just this silence that the adults all grasped the fact that he _had _been lying. They couldn't argue anymore. Kazuma was glad. Giving a half-bow to Haru, he quickly walked back to his home, carrying the nearly-unconscious Kyou with him.

It came as no surprise, really, when Kazuma walked back into Kyou's room later that night to find him missing. It was eerily quiet in there, the rain pounding against the window. He sighed and walked further in to lower the bowl of hot water with the washcloth in it beside Kyou's futon. As he did, he noticed something on the covers… He knelt down and picked it up. It was a sketchbook Kazuma had bought him a while ago. You'd have never guessed it, but Kyou was an avid doodler. He could spend hours over one book, sketching little pictures and coloring them in with crayons just to pass the time. Kazuma smiled at the images he saw; the current page was a picture of Kyou in an outfit that looked similar to his guardian's martial arts uniform. Kazuma flipped a page back. This one was a picture of Kyou in his normal attire, standing triumphantly over what looked to be a dead mouse. It wasn't a bloody picture… The mouse was just lying on the ground with little Xs for eyes. The man chuckled and flipped back another page.

This one was a picture of the true form of the cat spirit.

Kazuma's smile faded. It was an ugly picture. The image wasn't very accurate, but he could tell nonetheless that it was Kyou as he really was. He was on all fours with cartoon-like, snarling teeth being bared. The eyes were mean. And it wasn't just the picture that got him… Kazuma tilted the book to look at the bottom of the page. In small letters, green crayon, were the words, "I'm a monster" written sloppily in the handwriting that belonged to that of a seven-year-old.

Kazuma remained kneeling on the ground for a long time, staring at that book. Meanwhile, it began to thunder outside.

A little grunt came from the inside corner of the bathroom. Kyou sat on the floor in front of the sink, a damp washcloth draped over one leg, his hands busily working to bandage up the cuts on his arms. Never having really done this by himself before, he was having a bit of trouble tightening and closing them. His annoyance was clear on his face as he grit his teeth, pulling vainly at the cloth to make it go tighter. The only thing he succeeded in was making the pain come back. He groaned as the blood soaked through the cotton and proceeded in trying again.

_"THAT BEAST!"_

_"If you take that off, I heard he turns into a big, ugly monster!"_

_"Kill the source! Kill the source!"_

_"Kazuma, we demand you hand that monster over now!"_

_"I mean, who would think highly of a man so foolish as to take care of a little horror like that?"_

Tears surfaced. Sobs emitted from his mouth as he worked the bandages on his arms again. "What am I doing anymore?" When his hands started shaking, he dropped the roll of cloth to the floor. Clumsily, he grabbed for it, trembling fingers trying to grasp the torn edge of the bandage. As he started to wrap his arms again, the door to the bathroom suddenly slid wide open. He jerked in surprise, staring up as Kazuma walked in. He immediately saw the boy on the floor and smiled softly to him.

"So, here you are…"

Kyou grunted and went back to fixing his wounds. Kazuma remained in the doorway for a while before entering and shutting the door behind him. Slowly, he slid the small stool he had bought for the boy so he could see in the mirror across the floor, then lowered himself to sit on it. He stared at the lowered orange head, still smiling as Kyou continued to work at patching himself up. After a moment, when Kyou still couldn't get it, Kazuma leaned forward and put his hands on Kyou's, trying to ease the bandages from his grip so he could do it himself, but the cat's hands lashed backwards. "I can do it myself!" he shouted, turning somewhat so he could keep the cloth out of his guardian's reach and just fix it himself. Kazuma's smile faded, sighing and sitting back.

"Kyou… I understand if you fear all of them…"

Kyou shot his head around. "I'm not afraid of _them_!"

"I understand if you're afraid to speak."

"I'm not afraid!"

"I understand if you're afraid of causing other people harm."

Kyou fell silent then, watching Kazuma, body shaking. After a while, he growled and went back to his bandages. "That wasn't my fault… They pulled my beads off! It wasn't my fault!" He repeated that a few times, and gradually Kazuma began to sense that the topic was no longer falling on the two children he had harmed earlier. The man felt sad for Kyou, whose words intensified every time he said them until they just seemed to… die altogether.

"Kyou…"

"It wasn't… my…" He broke down into sobs, dropping the roll of bandages and lowering his head more. His eyes shut tight as tears streamed down his face. His knees lifted some, curling in on himself some ways as he rested his elbows on his legs and clutched at his hair tightly as if he were trying to tear out some hidden pain. "I'm…" Kyou tried to say something in between his little gasps for air, attempting to calm himself. "I'm sorry…"

Kazuma only watched him.

"… I understand if you're afraid of all those things, Kyou, but what I can't understand……is why you're afraid of me."

Kyou looked up at him.

"You don't speak to me in fear of saying something I won't like, isn't that right?"

The boy was silent.

"You try to avoid being seen with me in fear of people seeing us together, right? You're afraid you'll embarrass me."

Silent still…

"You're afraid I'll get fed up with you and kick you out… right?"

The rain started to pound harder at the roof. The thunder and lightning intensified… Finally, the power gave in and shut off. When the room was bathed in darkness, only the few beams of light from the outside offering any glow to the bathroom, Kyou finally managed to force a reaction out of himself. Still seated on the floor, he kicked the bandages towards the sink, then stood and ran out of the bathroom. Kazuma didn't bother to look to see where he went. He only sighed and dropped his head, not only frustrated with the boy, but with himself.

At times like this, Kyou often resorted to the roof to hide, but… it was still raining… with lightning and thunder to add to it, too. He couldn't go outside… he didn't want to stay inside…

Where in the world was there a place for him?

'I can't go anywhere 'cause I have nowhere to go…' the boy thought heavily as he yanked on the chord attached to the ceiling. After a few more tugs, the stairs folded up in the roof dropped in a gliding manner to the floor, allowing the cat to slowly climb up it with the ease that he had been graced with at birth. Once securely set on the boards of the attic, he pulled on a string he had tied himself to the bottom of the stairs and gently folded the steps back up so that no one could follow him. 'I'll be alone now…' Kyou thought absently and started crawling for a back corner of the house, avoiding hidden boxes and gossamer spider webs decorated every here and there. Something… be it a bug or a small animal, scurried across the flooring across the attic. Kyou paid no mind to it and resumed in finding his own little place among the boxes, a space he had made himself the first day he had gone to live with Kazuma. In the corner, he had pushed towering boxes to surround the walls. He now slipped through an opening in these boxes with cat-like delicacy, sitting on the dusty floor in a little ball.

'I hate it here…'

He remembered what the day had been like… dim morning, silent breakfast, silent lunch, silent dinner, then the incident at the pond… He remembered what had happened and what he had turned into, why he had turned into that monster… His eyes fell to his arms and looked sadly at the cuts and bruises blemishing the finely-tanned skin.

_"The day that boy doesn't show his horrid face around the property is the day we know he's dead."_

Kyou hadn't understood what Akito had meant by that, but knew later when he heard Kazuma and Shigure talking on the day of his mother's funeral. Kazuma had already accepted Kyou into his home and had gone to the main house to make arrangements for the move. The man had encountered Shigure during the visit. Kyou had lingered outside, leaning against the wall beside the door and waiting for his new guardian to come out and retrieve him.

_"I understand the curse and I understand the weight he must be carrying… but sometimes… I can't stand to hear what he says."_

_"Please, Kazuma, it doesn't take much to understand his pain. And even so… No one cares to bear his abusive bantering."_

_"So why encourage it?"_

_"I don't. I just let him be. You know what happens when you try to stop Akito."_

_"Yes, I know… But I truly wish he would ease off of Kyou at some point… It breaks my heart to hear such things being said about him."_

_"Akito will never let something like that die. You know him: Life's good so long as one person is suffering more than him."_

_"Didn't think that was possible…"_

_"I'd think you would. The cat's been in your family before… You've seen such pain."_

_"…"_

_"Well, as for Kyou, I think it's a noble thing you're doing, taking in that boy."_

_"I couldn't stand to see him like that any longer."_

_"I see. Well, just make sure you keep an eye on him."_

_"Shigure, you of all people probably never heard the word 'discipline' or 'control' before, but I intend to keep Kyou in line just as much as I plan to love him."_

_"How sweet, but that's not what I meant."_

_"Then what did you mean?"_

_"Kyou, I'm sure, could turn out to be a troublemaker, as most kids tend to be, but what I mean is his depression."_

_"Like I said, I'll keep him in line and love him just as much."_

_"Kazuma………Having done my fair share of research on these things, I might as well give you a little factoid about cats."_

_"What is it?"_

_"It's not that you'll have to keep an eye on Kyou and make sure he doesn't go for the razorblade… Make sure he doesn't disappear. Cats tend to go wherever insures their aloneness when they plan to die."_

'When they plan to die…'

Kyou stared at his cut hands, then his bare, bruised chest, then his torn shorts and beaten legs. He stared at the images in his mind of his mother's casket. He stared at the images of himself as a cat-monster. He stared through his mind's eye of what he saw when he was the cat-monster, what he felt when he turned into that creature, how desperately he wanted to hurt those who hurt him. He felt the pain swell up for being excluded when he had never done anything to deserve it in the first place. He stared at the image in his mind of Yuki. He stared at Akito. He stared at his father. He wanted to hurt them. He wanted to hurt them all but knew he couldn't, couldn't move from where he was…

…couldn't move from the place that insured his aloneness.

Kyou started to cry… absentmindedly, the tears surfaced and rolled down his cheeks, following the already dry trails from before. His mind showed him an image of Kazuma… Kazuma would find him eventually, up in there, hiding away behind the boxes, the only safe place he could get to that was away from the Souma family, the people outside, the rain outside, everything that dragged him down and wanted to hurt him. His guardian had found him before up here, so he knew Kazuma would surely find him again…

_"…when they plan to die…"_

Kyou sobbed and lied down on the floor, curled in the fetal position, staring at the dull boxes surrounding him and slowly thinking, hoping that Kazuma would come find him before the cat really did fall into a deep, permanent muteness beyond his own intentions.

Ze end.

AN: Eh-heh… I was trying really hard not to drive Kyou's character into that depressing little corner where his bipolar-ness becomes annoying. We all know characters like that… Shinji from Evangelion. He was one annoyingly depressed little fu---er, wasn't he? But we still all love him, nonetheless, right? Okay, so… this story's done. Kyou _obviously_ doesn't die 'cause he appears later in the show. Duh. So there's some good news for all you Kyou fans (unlike my "City Bus Stops" first chapter where everyone was rather convinced that Duo was gonna die. –coughgoreadhcitybusstopsitsagoodstorycough-).

Viva la subliminal messaging.

Review, my preciousss… Leave us reviewses.


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